June Preschool Literature

Bear Feels Scared

This month in our kindergarten readiness time, we are reading Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson. The story follows a bear who gets lost after he goes out into the woods to look for something to eat. As night falls it gets cold and bear starts to feel scared so he huddles under a tree. Meanwhile, his friends, who are different forest animals, are waiting for bear at his lair. When he doesn’t return they worry about him and they go out together to look for him.

Intro to book (predicting) Before opening the book, the teacher will tell the children the title and author/illustrator. Without showing them the inside of the book, the teacher will ask what they think the book is about. The predictions will be recorded with the child’s name on a paper. The teacher will then turn through the pages, without reading them, and ask if they have any new predictions after looking at the illustrations. What do you think? (classifyling/feelings) The teacher will read the book to the group. At the end, she will ask why bear was scared. She will ask the children if there was ever a time they felt scared. What did they do? What would they do if they were the bear and lost their way?

Who would you choose to be? The teacher will ask the children what animals they see on the cover of the book. Where do these animals live? What other animals live in the forest? The teacher will then ask each child what type of forest animal they would like to be and will write responses on a board.

Habitat The teacher will talk about how the bear lives in a lair. What is a lair? Do the bear’s friends live in the lair with him? The teacher will ask where the other animals might possibly live. In the book, bear had gone out to look for a snack. The teacher will ask the children what type of snack they think bear was looking for. The teacher will then ask the children what type of snacks they like to eat.

Feelings When bear is scared he “shakes and shivers.” The teacher will ask the children what they do/how they look when they are scared. What about when they are happy? Sad? Mad?

Drawing (immagination/dictation) The teacher will have the children draw a picture of their favorite part or favorite animal in the book. She will have them tell her about it and she will write their dictation at the bottom of the picture.

Shiver & Shake (listening) The teacher will ask the children to listen to the story and when they hear “bear feels scared” they should shiver and shake like they are scared.

Close Procedure After the teacher reads a page, she will read it again, leaving out a word by pausing and allowing the children to fill it in. She will omit words that occur often or that are predictable. She will point to each word as it is read.

My favorite part is (recall) The group will read through the story together. The teacher will have each child open their book to their favorite page. She will ask them why it is their favorite. Toward the middle of the month, she will ask them to tell her what it says on that page.

Homework The teacher will write individual words (and, the bear, feels, scared) on cardstock. She will hold them up, one by one, and have the children write the words on their “homework paper” with pencils.

Scared The teacher will write the sentence “I am scared when ________” on easel paper. She will then invite the children to complete this sentence. She will record their responses, writing the child’s name next to their answer.

Seasons After reading the book the teacher will have the children look at the images in the book. What season do they think it is? Why do they think that? Is it the same season that we are in right now?

Graphing The teacher will ask the children which one of the animals they would want to be their friend? Why? Graph the results on a board.

Problem Solving The teacher will ask the children if they ever thought someone was missing and what they would do if they couldn’t find a friend at Sunshine House. How do they go about finding them? The teacher will ask the children if they have ever gotten lost before and what they did? What should they have done?

Who Would You Rather Be? (feelings/dictation) The teacher will ask each child, as in the story, would they rather be the friends waiting and then searching for their friend or would they rather be the lost bear? Why?

Alphabet Soup (letter recognition) The teacher will spread out the foam letters Q-Z in the middle of the circle. She will explain to the group that it’s soup…alphabet soup. She will then write a word from the slap jack cards, name it and each letter in it. The children will take turns finding each letter.